Challenges in Maintaining Team Dynamics
In this technologically advanced world that we live in, we find it easy to achieve communications amongst each other, whether it is by phone, e-mail or the various social networking sites that are available to us. Because of these advances, more and more organizations and teams are finding themselves using multiple mediums to communicate with each other. Some teams even take it to the farthest extreme and only use these mediums as a means of communication; these teams or groups are referred to as being "virtual". thumb|372px|right|Managing Virtual Teams Groups who have adopted the virtualization as their only means of communication will find it very hard to get the amount of work that they could get done if communicating on a more personable level. This is because “Group members are often unaware of remote teammates’ availability, current activities, and other information that might influence their work.” (Steinfield, 105) Because of the separation of space and time of these group members, we will see a lot of challenges that the group as a whole will face. According to “Five challenges to virtual team success: Lessons from Sabre, Inc”1 and "Realizing the Benefits of Virtual Teams"2 , Some of the challenges that virtual teams face are as follows: Building Trust Within Virtual Teams: In any organization, whether it be a big company like Microsoft or a small company like BigFish games, trust plays a big role in maintaining the organizational culture and in-turn helping the organization succeed. Trust is what hold two parties in union with each other, "Trust has been called the glue of the global workplace" (Kirkman 2002, cited O'Hara-Devereaux 1994 ) . Without trust an organization wouldn't be able to function well and will fail in the long run. In the case of virtual teams, each individual who is a part of the team must feel a certain level of trust towards another in the team. This trust could be something as simple as trusting a team member to do his part and/or trusting that a team member will have the integrity to hold themselves accountable for their mistakes and not push it off onto someone else. “The combined effects of a lack of awareness and relatively limited social relations can diminish trust among remote participants.” (Steinfield, 105). Building trust is a should be the central focus of the team when they first form because whatever happens within this team moving forward will be a direct link to how well or how badly the team was able to build trust amongst each other. Maximizing Process Gains and Minimizing Process Losses on Virtual Teams: Due to the nature of virtual teams, there is little physical or verbal communication that goes on between the members of that team. Because of this, teams are likely to encounter process losses much more than process gains. Humans are feeling oriented and without the personal communication that is accompanied with normal teams (teams that communicate verbally of physically), it is hard to get the maximum process gains. The reason being, since these teams have only technology to communicate, they lack the freedom to talk to each other freely as they please. by this, I mean that they cannot express their opinions and feelings at the time that they experience them and because of having to use emails to communicate, the emotions behind what a person is actually trying to portray and what is actually received by the other is distorted in that process. “Forming good working relationships is difficult when technology mediates all interactions. Remote team members often do not know each other well or at all and have little opportunity to meet in person.” (Steinfield, 105). Knowing this, we can assume that a process that needs constant feedback between several team members won’t be received in the correct context that it was originally supposed to have, and the time it takes to decode the context will result in time lost which directly will affect process gains. Overcoming Feelings of Isolation and Detachment Associated With Virtual Teamwork: The one thing that could make virtual teams a challenge as I have briefly touched upon is the aspect of isolation and detachment. Just as process gain is affected due to the separation of these virtual teams, the psychological state of the team member is also affected. When these teams are working together over space and time that don’t correlate well with each other, each member will feel that they are the only one that can contribute at a certain space and time. “Even the best technology cannot work if team members are not prepared for the challenges of working across time zones and national borders.” (Steinfield, 105). This means, given a scenario that a person in Washington DC is working with another from Cairo, Egypt, the person on either end can perform work during their work hours which don’t necessarily fall at the same time frame as the other. “Group members are often unaware of remote teammates’ availability, current activities, and other information that might influence their work.” (Steinfield, 105). This challenge of isolation and detachment isn't one that can be solved easily, but these teams will have to device a clever workaround that will allow each member to interact with another the extent of what is technologically and physically feasible. Balancing Technical and Interpersonal Skills Among Virtual Team Members: Due to the lack of personal interaction between team members, most virtual teams take the aspect of interpersonal skills for granted when looking for team members and solely focus of the individual’s technical skills. Interpersonal skills look at how an individual interacts to those external to themselves. The challenges that are faced when you can’t balance the two together is, if in the worst case each technical person lacked good EI(emotional intelligence), they would put aside the feedback and the opinion of the other team members when trying to accomplish a process. This means that without the interpersonal skills to balance the technical skills among team members, it is hard to get any successful work done. if every team member only focused on what he or she has to do instead of focusing on helping the team as a whole by combining every team members voice, the team as a whole will fail together. Assessment and Recognition of Virtual Team Performance: Because of the limited interaction between a manager and their subordinates, the aspect of assessment and recognition is limited to only the quality of the product or project projected by the individual in the team. This aspect makes it tough for managers to give an individual their much needed recognition for the good work that they may have done. Because a manager can’t sit and observe their subordinates, it is hard to track who did what in project that took a collaborative effort to accomplish. Work cited 1 Kirkman, B. L., Rosen, B., Gibson, C. B., Tesluk, P. E., & McPherson, S. O. (2002). Five challenges to virtual team success: Lessons from Sabre, Inc. Academy Of Management Executive, 16(3), 67-79. doi:10.5465/AME.2002.8540322 2 Steinfield, Charles. "Realizing the Benefits of Virtual Teams." Computer. 35.3 (2002). Print.